IT Visionary Makes Mobility Central to Deploying New Technologies

Mario Kovacevic is Vice President, Information Technology and E-Business for J.J. Barnicke Ltd, one of North America's largest real estate advisory firms. With help from a third party supplier, he led his IT team in the development of a mobile application for his company's sales people. This application offers easy access to CRM, sales funnel and property data on BlackBerry® devices so sales people serve customers better while onsite at properties. Through this experience, he's become a big supporter of mobilizing key applications and has made it part of his central philosophy towards deploying technology.

Why was the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution the right mobile platform for you?
I have a checklist, or acid test, that I provide to any company that wants me to consider switching from the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. At the top of the list are two things that summarize the value proposition for us. First, is the device something that users will easily gravitate towards; does it meet 80% of the needs of our users? Second, is the basic security model built into the architecture of the device that will enable us to deploy quickly and efficiently. As soon as I list those top two requirements, I don't need to continue down the rest of my list.

Why should your mobile strategy and your desktop strategy align?
Our decision-making matrix now includes how and where mobility will fit into the general mix. That means we include mobility as part of our primary technology strategy when we talk about any application deployment, migration or major technology change. It's no longer enough for us to have desktop access when many of key people work away from the office. The technology is only so useful to us if it can only operate in a bricks and mortar setting.

How do you ensure that your mobile application stays relevant to your sales peoples' needs?
The number one skill set for our team is the ability to listen to the needs of our users. We spent time with J.J. Barnicke's sales force and watched them do their jobs. That helped us find a solution that made their jobs easier; it also continues to help us modify the solution to benefit the company. Getting involved like this ensures that the applications we develop are seen as valuable by our user community and they'll use them every day.

Sure, there are things our users want in a wireless device, but we started by ensuring the device we give them meets their basic business needs. If we tried to promote a device that didn't really hit the mark, you can bet they would start looking elsewhere for another tool. Our users easily gravitated towards the BlackBerry device because it serves most of their needs. And it keeps it simple so anyone can use it regardless of technical skill.

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